miart 2016- international modern and contemporary art fair

GALLERIES | SECTIONS

Nine galleries for an itinerary that crosses the 20th century, decade by decade.

Curated by Alberto Salvadori, Director of Museo Marino Marini, Florence

> Blain Southern, London

> Studio Guenzani, Milano

> Richard Saltoun, London

> Galleria dello Scudo, Verona

> Società di Belle Arti, Viareggio - Cortina d’Ampezzo

> Gian Enzo Sperone, Sent

> Christian Stein, Milano - Pero

> Michael Werner, New York - London

> Wilkinson, London

One of the main new developments at this 21st edition of miart is the Decades section, which offers an itinerary across the 20th century, decade by decade, from the turn of the century to the 1990s. This new section curated by Alberto Salvadori outlines a narrative that emphasizes the two focuses of miart – modern and contemporary – consolidating the chronology of the range of art presented, thanks to the inclusion for the first time of works from the first decades of the 20th century: from the historical avant-gardes to the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, all the way to the 1980s and 1990s. In a moment of great interest on the international market in the art of the period after World War II, particularly from Italy, miart, thanks to this new section, offers even greater support for the market of high-quality historic art, enhancing the fair with more international range in the modern sector.

Decades – composed of nine galleries with booths, each covering one decade of the 20th century – offers collectors and viewers a chance to see extraordinary works, thanks to the research conducted by leading dealers. Seen as a whole, the Decades section offers an exhibition itinerary with nine extraordinary settings of Italian and international art of the 20th century, underlining the role and function of dealers and gallerists not just as market players, but above all as producers of content in relation to artists and major collections. The gallerist, in this dynamic, has always played a decisive role as a builder of possibilities, an editor of ideas and suggestions, accompanying the birth of collections and of a taste that can also then be shared with an audience; it is also for this reason that the history of art in Italy has always been linked to that of collecting, and gallerists have been the co-protagonists. Figurative and abstract painting, Conceptual Art, photography, the debuts of extraordinary gallerists who have been leading figures, yesterday and today, in the history and formation of collecting… crossings of the last three decades of the 20th century are presented in an itinerary that makes it possible to encounter great masters and figures previously overshadowed or neglected, revealing how an art fair can become a special place of discoveries and surprises.

The first years of the 20th century are represented by a refined selection of Italian artists that made the history of painting in our country, and more: the last painting made by Fattori bears witness to the Italian passage from the 19th to the 20th century, alongside works by other leading exponents of that period, like De Chirico, de Pisis and others, the so-called Italians of Paris. The selection of works has been made in collaboration with Società di Belle Arti of Viareggio and Cortina d’Ampezzo, a refined Italian dealer making its first appearance at miart. The path continues with the 1930s and 1940s, investigated thanks to the painstaking and precious contribution that Gian Enzo Sperone is making on an international level regarding Italian abstract art in that period. Works by artists like Soldati, Magnelli, Prampolini guide us in the discovery of Italian abstraction between the two World Wars. The 1950s are examined through the extraordinary contribution of a great sculptor, Lynn Chadwick, presented by the English gallery Blain Southern, with an outstanding selection of works from that decade, packed with modernist stylemes that encounter the forms of nature to generate biomorphic works. After the first half of the century, 1961 was the year in which a Milanese artist, Piero Manzoni, made an iconic and very rare work, of which just two copies exist, one in the collection of MoMA NY and the other in the priceless collection constructed with passion and intelligence by a German gallerist, Michael Werner. This opens up a new moment in Decades, where the 1960s become another fundamental phase with the birth of the gallery of Christian Stein in Turin, now operating in Milan, an absolute protagonist for its rigorous exhibitions and selection of works, which for many years has offered museum-quality exhibitions of Italian artists. 1966 is the year in which Stein’s adventure began, and for miart, thanks to Gianfranco Benedetti, the choice is to reproduce the gallery’s very first show, by Aldo Mondino. The decade of the 1970s is covered by Galleria dello Scudo of Verona and a great Italian painter, Emilio Vedova, featuring his project De America, an opportunity to retrace the phases of an “American” itinerary of the Italian artist, in which his painting reflects the radical transformations that shook the artworld in the 1960s and 1970s. For this latter decade, the English gallery of Richard Saltoun proposes a vast and rare selection of photographs by artists who have made the human body their point of arrival and reference: the body investigated and used as a conceptual instrument and production material by Gina Pane, Ketty La Rocca, Jo Spencer and others. For miart, the extraordinary photographs of Claudio Abate made in the Galleria L’Attico are also presented, capturing unrepeatable moments of the performances and exhibitions produced by Fabio Sargentini. This brings us to the 1980s and the Wilkinson Gallery, showing a selection of very rare works by artists coming to terms with themes like sexual identity, social identity and gender, seen in the summer 1984 issue of ZG Magazine, published that year in an atmosphere of social concern foreshadowed by Orwell’s novel named for that year. Laura Simmons, Jimmy De Sana, Derek Jarman, Dara Birnbaum and Joan Jonas are the names in this epic magazine where sociology, anthropology and art history blended in a precise analysis of the urban cultural landscape. Decades concludes with a solo show on one of the artists who since the 1990s has continued on a meaningful course in Italian art, Stefano Arienti, presented by Studio Guenzani.

Alberto Salvadori studied Art History in Pisa, and at the University of Sussex and University of Reading, and then specialized in Modern and Contemporary Art History of the European Countries in Pisa, followed by a Masters in Curating at the Brera Academy. He edited the general catalogue of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. Since 2009 he has been the director of Museo Marino Marini in Florence. Since 2007 he has been part of the Contemporary Arts Observatory of Ente Cassa di Risparmio of Florence; he is a member of the board of Istituzione Bologna Musei and the board of Polimoda scuola d'alta formazione of Florence.